Case Studies in Participatory Planning and Community Building

Also available in

Roger Katan is a French American architect, artist, and educator known as a proponent of the community-based design practices of participatory architecture and advocacy planning. He has been a university instructor, international consultant, lecturer, activist, and author on the subject.

Ronald Shiffman, FAICP, is the former director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, which he cofounded in 1964. He was awarded the 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership for his work to promote community-based activism over the last fifty years.

With Case studies of neighborhood developments from North and South America, Europe, and Africa that span more than forty years. this book offers a seminal treatise on the community based design practices of participatory planning an advocacy architecture.

"To transform their good intentions into tangible results in neighborhoods jittery over gentrification, the mayor and his planners should read Building Together: Case Studies in Participatory Planning and Community Building." - Sam Roberts, The New York Times

With case studies of neighborhood developments from North and South America, Europe, and Africa that span forty years, Building Together offers a seminal treatise on the community-based design practices of participatory planning and advocacy architecture. The authors describe the challenges, opportunities, and rewards of grassroots collaboration through vivid personal accounts chosen for their practical lessons. Their case studies range in scale from regional urban planning to smaller architectural projects, and geographically from Harlem, Greenpoint, and the greater New York Metropolitan region to sites in coastal Colombia, southern France, and Burkina Faso, Africa.
Building Together is designed to appeal to a diverse audience of community development specialists, faculty and students of planning, architecture, community health, and the social sciences, practicing professionals and decisionmakers in economic development, and community-based organizations.

About the Authors:

Roger Katan has been an indispensable figure in urban planning as an advocate of participatory
democracy.

Ron Shiffman is a legend in New York, advocating for equity and socially responsible
design. Together they have written the book on how to build a more humane and healthy city.

Michael Kimmelman, author, columnist, and architecture critic for the New York Times

Roger Katan is a French American architect, artist, and educator known as a proponent of the community-based design practices of participatory architecture and advocacy planning. He has been a university instructor, international consultant, lecturer, activist, and author on the subject.

Ron Shiffman is the former director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, which he cofounded in 1964. He is emeritus professor at Pratt's Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.